Tuesday, 02 December 2008
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Yikes My Kid Is Getting Sick From Daycare!
Ever since Baby Whale enrolled in daycare she has been getting sick a lot. A few days ago, Papa Whale was at her school to celebrate Thanksgiving with her, and he saw a boy just cough right into my daughter's face. Ever since she came home she has not stopped coughing. It's painful to see her in pain and she's been getting sick a lot because she is exposed to so many kids at her school. So, Papa Whale and I decided to stop her from going to daycare and taking her out into the brutal cold.
Has anyone experienced this? Do worry about your kids getting sick from other kids in daycare?
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Comments (20)
I witnessed the same thing when my second-cousins started public school. They're till constantly home sick even now in 1st and 3rd grade. It plays a pretty big role in my reasoning for not wanting to send Megan to daycare and even seriously considering home schooling.
I worked in a daycare for a summer, and you wouldn't believe how sick kids would get! However, our daycare had a rule that if your child was sick, they could not come to the daycare, and if you sent them anyway, we would call you and you would have to come and get them. I think that's the only way to keep sicknesses out of the daycare. Fortunately, I was only sick once at the beginning. There really isn't a way to stop your child from getting sick except for keeping them home.
I don't worry about it too much. Kids are going to get sick. My newest one somehow got sick at 4 weeks old. I have no idea how. He is not in daycare and not around anyone that I can think of who was sick. If my child is constantly coming home with a cold I might consider switching daycares. Some are not as strict as others on their sick child policies.
That's one reason why my son will not go to daycare. Another is because I'm a SAHM. Hee hee! But on the up side, your child is building a better immune system by being exposed to more germs. Though I have some doubts on that theory.
Any child that is around other children within a community is going to get sick. It's a fact of life that children are more prone to illness because they've built up fewer antibodies. Put a bunch of "antibody-less" people in the same place, touching the same objects and you can bet that nearly everyone is going to go home with a new strain of bacteria. If it makes you feel any better, think about the Native Americans after the Europeans came over. Smallpox is slightly more life-threatening than a cold. *rolls eyes*
I really hate to sound rude but it's much better than being niave. Kids need to be allowed to develop their social skills as well as their immune systems. Of course, you could forbid your little ones from ever leaving the house ... but then you'd have to worry about things from outside of the house that came in by way of groceries, games, friends' fingers, etc. For the sake of your child's sanity and their future self, pump them with 100% juice (READ: "Vitamin C") and let them go out and play!
I agree that children need to be able to develop their immune systems, But I am not fond of my daughter going to daycare. Children will tend to get sick more often then us adults b/c they have not built am immune system against sickness. But that is also where breast feeding comes in hand. But that is another rabbit trail that I wont go down. There are a lot of other things that children can pick up at daycare other then sicknesses, like bad behavior. I worked in a daycare for awhile. And some of the sweetest kids would end up being such brats by the end of a week. I am starting a new job of working in the child care center at a resort. My mother in law will watch my daughter most of the week. I may take my daughter in once a week with me for the socialization. But she also goes into the nursery at church which I trust people there a lot more then those at a daycare. My daughter can work on building her immune system in other ways then being smacked in the face with germs at a daycare center.
When I went back to work, my son was 2 months old. He went to daycare for 2 weeks, and soon after that, he started coughing and was really lethargic. Come to find out, he had pneumonia. The doctors said it started out Viral, then went through it's stages. So, after spending a week in the hospital...there was no more daycare.
EVERYONE gets sick when first introduced to a new environment with so many people. first year students (daycare/kindergarten and college especially) and first year teachers always get the sickest. but after that, you start to build up immunity.
I worked in a daycare and if your kid got sick, you HAD to come pick up your child and keep them home until we had a doctor's note allowing them to return. look for a daycare with a similar policy. also, daycare age children don't fully understand how easily it is to pass germs and get other people sick. so the coughing child wasn't maliciously getting your child sick. and if the teacher saw it, s/he should've told the child that wasn't appropriate and had him/her was his/her hands.
as a teacher, an educator, I do not believe that keeping your child home solves all the issues. but that's just my opinion.
I guess change another daycare? Go to a daycare, who put attention, care, and effort, into kids hygiene and stopping the spread of germs.
But well, they are kids, (and little kids), it's hard to avoid. But I think the school can at least do something. Like 'try friendily' to teach kids to cover their mouth with their hands, when they cough, and don't cough in front of people face.
And also, wash hands before they eat, wash hand before entering the school, I am not saying that their home stinks and they bring germs to school, but some take public transportation with parents to go to school.
And that water fountain, I never think is a good idea, it's one of the way to spread germs. Some water drop down too, as you drink water from the fountain.
And yeah, vaccine.
Everyday, when I go home, I try avoid touching too much things, I go wash my hands immediately. I think both kids and adult can do that too.
I wasn't nervous about my daughter getting sick at daycare.
She only went for a little while though. 1-3months and 6-9 months old she went.
I breastfed so I hoped that'd protect her from alot.
When my daughter was born I worked a few random hours at a bookstore but usually only an evening here or there when Daddy could be with her. She was never in day care, only the church nursery. I too worked in the church nursery and knew the procedures that were taken in there to keep sick kids out and to disinfect the toys after each use. My daughter seemed to have constant colds and ear infections for her first almost two years of life. I nursed her for her first six months, I did what I thought possible and yet she still got sick. Fast forward to her entering pre-school for 4 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day... she got sick, move on to Kindergarten, she got sick, switched to a new school, she got sick. SHe is our oldest and I guess gets the joy and "honor" of trying on all the germs. My second born gets sick the first week of school... every year he has since pre-school. My third gets sick every January but that is about all. The baby will be 5 next week and I can count on one hand the number of times HE has been sick, even with multiple trips to the most germ-laden place on earth... the ER for stiches. I guess for us there is no rhyme or reason to who get's sick and who doesn't and why. To me some are more prone to it and maybe the younger ones aren't sick as much because they have always lived around the germs. That is my theory whether or not it is true.
It's really a vicious cycle. I worked with Pre-K in a center ranging from 6 week olds to 6 year olds. Parents sometimes don't have a backup plan when they're kid is sick, and they have to go to work, so the kid comes in, getting others sick, etc. They're not supposed to come in for a certain amount of time if they have a fever, or other infections, but sometimes the parents just give them medicine in the morning, and tell us that their kid is fine, but when the meds wear off, you know that they aren't. There are some parents who we wait for 6 hours to come pick up their kid because they're in a meeting and will be "right over". This is a girl who just filled the sink with vomit, so perhaps, she needs to go home and get some rest? And sometimes caregivers go into work sick too because there's not enough staffing available. Anyhow, I digress. Even outside of daycare, if you're not a regular "handwasher" there's germs everywhere.
Something I've always found to work very well in preventing colds is Airborne. You should look into it. :) It's a sort of herbal medicine developed by a schoolteacher that strengthens the body's immune system. There's the effervescent formula and the power pixie formula for kids.
If your daughter is under four, I think a doctor should be consulted if you're interested. It's totally be worth checking out, though, I think. I wish this had been around when I was little. :D
It is unfortunate that some parents send their children to school when they are sick. Hopefully, the schools clean the toys and things at the school daily during cold season. Think of all the germs on things that they touch in school. Preschools and parents should teach children how to cough away from others or cough into their arm and/or cover their mouths. They should also stress cleanliness, washing their hands after blowing their nose or going to the bathroom. Sick children should be sent home. During cold seasons, it's important that children eat right, drink lots of juice, water, and get enough rest. It's tiring at school and having lots of rest and naps or going to bed early makes them less prone to catch it. Speak to the teacher or the school director to voice any concerns. The more people they hear from the better.
If your child is constantly sick and home more than in school, maybe you should consider keeping them home for a while until they are well and strong. This is why I choose to be a work at home mom.
www.suesbooks.info
oh yes, i breast-fed for the very reason that i knew it would boost my child's immune system. i was a stay at home mom. she NEVER EVER got sick. even when some one in the family was sick, she never got it. when i started work again, i had to put her in daycare. first she started coming home with a runny nose. i thought it was cute at first because she never had one, but when she started bringing home other illnesses i got more than a little annoyed. i'm home again with our second child, and I really have no intentions of leaving him until he's at least 1. i know everybody can't stay home w their kids, but since i am able to .. that's my decision for now.
I totally agree with - imsum1special2: everyone gets sick, and you know what? It's normal. Plus, getting sick a lot at this age builds up their immune system. Kids who go to daycare are more likely to not get sick much when they start going to school.
I know it's not nice to watch your child feel bad, but there is no better way to build up their immune system. Of course a daycare center should have a policy (ours is: if the child has a high temperature, you have to pick him/her up. Same goes for spots of any kind, or other suspected symptoms of child diseases).
Most children are sick a lot for the first 8 or 9 months they go to daycare - after that, they are immune to a lot of the germs. I think we are becoming a bit germ-o-phobic as moms, but exposure to the not-so-dangerous kind is good for the immune system - which is not to say that kids shouldn't be taught to wash their hands after they go potty, of course
I had both my kids in day care from about three months on. They got colds and other minor illnesses there, but after the first year or so they hardly ever got sick (except for chicken pox, which one had at age three and the other at age four). They missed very few days of elementary school and even fewer days per year in middle and high school.
A friend of mine was a SAHM and did not put her kids in day care or preschool (except for a few hours a week of "mommy and me"-type activities) and her kids were rarely sick as toddlers, but missed many days of elementary school due to common, minor illnesses.
Germs are passed around in EVERY public environment. My kids are now in high school and college, and I still believe that the combination of breast feeding, early exposure to common germs/viruses and teaching them good hygiene habits helped to develop their immune systems.
Just two cents from a mother of older kids.
I never went to daycare, I never went to preschool. But when I went to first grade? Wow. I had been really healthy before that, because I was around family and generally older people all of the time; of which none of them had colds. But when I began going to elementary school I was constantly sick. Parents would send their kids to school with all kinds of illnesses, which in turn got passed on down to others. Kids touch everything, share everything, cough in eachothers faces, bite things, all of that; it's unavoidable in a good amount of situations.
When my cousin put her son in daycare, he not only came home sick all of the time, but he constantly got pink eye, and then also came home with bite marks and all sorts of other problems.
I've seen that kind of thing happen to so many children and their parents. When I do get around to having children, I'm going to do all that I can to avoid daycare and keep them healthy. No idea how to do that, but I'll do my best.
I've never had my daughter in daycare because I am a stay at home mommy. I have wanted to enroll her for just a few days a week so she can socialize but this is something that is stopping me from doing so. Everyone tells me their kids get super sick as soon as they start.
It's definitely sad to see the illness and pain, but I'm pretty sure studies have shown that children who attended daycare develop better immune systems as they get older. They've been exposed to all those different strains and learn to build up defenses. Nowadays with the billions of possible ways to get sick, if they were just to remain isolated, then as they actually entered elementary school, their systems would probably go into overdrive trying to keep up. So don't worry too much, I suppose!